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I’ve seen some other studies that say the opposite and I’m generally skeptical of results that come out of the GSS (it’s too easy to data dredge). There’s a dec
by starwind 4y ago
I’ve seen some other studies that say the opposite and I’m generally skeptical of results that come out of the GSS (it’s too easy to data dredge). There’s a decent amount of evidence that IQ positively correlates with happiness. Here’s a study I found real quick: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22998852/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22998852/
Results: Happiness is significantly associated with IQ. Those in the lowest IQ range (70-99) reported the lowest levels of happiness compared with the highest IQ group (120-129). Mediation analysis using the continuous IQ variable found dependency in activities of daily living, income, health and neurotic symptoms were strong mediators of the relationship, as they reduced the association between happiness and IQ by 50%.
There’s also evidence that IQ correlates with education, income, number of friends, lifespan, having a successful marriage, and having the desired number of children you desire (in case that’s not clear here’s an example: if you want 2 kids, it’s more likely you end up with 2 kids the higher your IQ). All that surely plays into happiness
Disclaimer: Individual results may vary
- M3L0NM4N 4y agoThis sounds pretty intuitive, that smarter people should have better lives in general.
- lostboomerang 4y agoWhy? I'd think the opposite. Smart people will on average probably be better of financially, but that doesn't transfer directly to happiness. A characteristic of "smart people" is the ability to identify and solve problems across a range of domains. That works well when the problem is some programming task, drawing a new house, gathering data for a report you write or whatever. But what if you identify problems you cannot solve? E.g. a smart person might realize, that the "American democracy" is fundamentally broken, but there's no way to solve this (vote all you want, the top of both parties gets their way anyway, so unless you're 100% aligned with Pelosi or Trump you're shafted). A smart person will identify the challenges their children have and will try to solve it by choosing the right school, but will fret forever that it wasn't the right choice. A not-so-smart person will believe, that as long as his party wins the next election everything will be better. A not-so-smart person will send their children to the default school for the district where they live. So a smart person will every day identify problems there are out of their realm to solve. They know their actions only have very limited - and perhaps even detrimental - impact on solving these things. All the while the not-so-smart people goes with the flow, doesn't worry too much, because they don't realize there was a problem to begin with. (I'm doing "averages" here. Of course a not-so-smart and poor person might be acutely aware of their dire financial situation which reflects negatively on their happiness, but at least they're being told they have the power to change that)
- M3L0NM4N 4y agoI'm not sure, it anecdotally appears to me that not-so-smart people tend to get angrier over political problems, for example, and just problems in general.
- starwind 4y ago> Smart people will on average probably be better of financially, but that doesn't transfer directly to happiness. eh, not exactly true: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2016976118 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2016976118 > But what if you identify problems you cannot solve? then you shouldn't take it personally
- kennedywm 4y agoWouldn't a smart person, realizing they have no hope of solving a particular problem, simply move on to doing something useful instead?